On
January 15, 1999, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations
for evaluating health claims for dietary supplements were declared
invalid under the first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and under
the Administrative Procedure Act. The Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia Circuit held the FDA�s refusal to authorize four nutrient-disease
relationship claims with disclaimers a violation of the First Amendment
commercial free speech doctrine. That court also held the FDA�s refusal
to define a standard for review of health claims arbitrary and capricious.
The decision is final and binding on the FDA. It is destined to have
a profound impact on the way the FDA regulates claims for dietary
supplements and potentially other products. --Jonathan W. Emord,
ESQ., 2000

Americans
have this funny idea that we are sovereign individuals, that government
is subservient to us, and that government bureaucrats follow the law.
Well, we have news for you. While Mr. Emord, the lawyer we quoted
above, predicted that the ruling he won for his clients in a landmark
case known as Pearson vs Shalala, would turn the tide after nearly
40 years of abuse meted out upon the dietary supplement industry by
the FDA, he was wrong. Since this first win, he�s done it over and
over again with three more Federal Court victories also declaring
the actions of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unconstitutional
and yet, this agency, along with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC),
have repeatedly failed to comply with the law and have continued their
regulatory abuse to the detriment of our collective health.

The
purpose of this NewsWithViews.com article is to outline the crisis
and to urge you to take action TODAY to support your right, under
the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, to have access to truthful
information about the benefits of taking dietary supplements. Details
about how you can take this action can be found at the end of this
article.

At
issue is whether or not the FDA, in concert with the FTC, should be
allowed to continue flaunting the law. To skip a lot of the technical
legal details, the bottom line is that Congress, with massive public
support, has passed several laws over the years spelling out the fact
that manufacturers of dietary supplements have the legal right to
make certain kinds of health claims that tell us how these products
can prevent disease. The caveat is that such claims must first be
submitted to the FDA with scientific documentation to back up the
claim so that agency can make sure the claim is not misleading or
fraudulent.

Yet,
instead of following the law, the FDA, believes that such information
made available to the public would be dangerous to us, and, in order
to protect us, keeps us in the dark by using review process the Courts
have ruled not only arbitrary and capricious but in violation of the
law. Let me remind you that the underlying intent of the First Amendment
is to presume that we citizens have the intelligence to make up our
own minds and the only time the government should step in if there
is compelling evidence to show harm or fraud.

The
extent to which both the FDA and the FTC keep us in the dark is appalling.

At
a recent U.S. House briefing for legislative aides on this matter,
a prelude to introduction of a bill to fix this crisis, appeared several
prominent citizens -Julian Whitaker, MD, a gifted complementary medical
doctor with a health newsletter that goes out to half a million readers
and a litigant in one of the above lawsuits; Charles Simone, MD, a
medical oncologist, formerly of the National Cancer Institute, who
helped organize the Office of Alternative Medicine at the NIH, and
author of several books on cancer; and Jonathan Emord the above-quoted
specialist in Constitutional and Administrative Law, and author of
Freedom, Technology and the First Amendment. These experts
outlined the need for more legislation to rein in the FDA and FTC.
An audio file on this 60-minute briefing
is available online and is worthy of your time.

One
of several serious cases illustrating the cost of depriving us of
critical information is that of telling us the value of folic acid.
Over a period of four years of FDA foot dragging on approving this
claim, makers of folic acid were not allowed to make health claims
regarding the daily use of 0.4 mg of this vitamin before and during
pregnancy in the prevention of neural tube defects (such as spina
bifida and encephaly). The time lost resulted in 10,000 preventable
neural tube defect births. Another censorship project between 1994
and 2000 prevented companies that sell omega-3 fatty acids found in
fish oils from telling us that using that supplement could prevent
sudden death heart attacks. As a result, 1.8 million people died during
that same period of time. In short, the FDA is responsible for 1.8
million people dying unnecessarily because of bureaucratic arrogance.

Still
waiting in the wings for approval are health claims regarding the
treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy (enlarged prostate) with
saw palmetto extract thereby denying relief to 50% of the male population
over the age of 50 that suffers from this health condition. The FDA
also prohibits companies from making claims about glucosamine and
chondroitin sulfate, which relieve the pain and stiffness of osteoarthritis.
Keep in mind that tens of thousands of people have died using the
FDA approved drug, Vioxx, used for the same purpose. There are many
other examples on the list that we will get to in future articles.

The
Federal Trade Commission�s game is to charge somebody with deceptive
advertising based on its own supposition that the statement is false,
regardless of the evidence at hand. The FTC takes the position that
those who advertise must possess �documentary proof to a near certain
degree.� The doublespeak here is that there is no real way to
have such �near certain� proof because there are too many variables
and science is basically relative, not absolute in these matters.
Be aware that we don�t know �for certain� how anything works in our
world. Consequently, the FTC can claim whatever the manufacturer has
to back up his claim, is never enough.

In
addition, the FTC does not provide advisory opinions to tell manufacturers
how the FTC makes rulings and the agency no longer issues warning
letters, either. So, if a manufacturer, in good faith, errs, such
an error cannot be corrected. Instead, the FTC operates in a revenue-raising
mode whereby its agents swoop down, grab all the assets of the hapless
manufacturer and rather than distributing the revenue to the consumers
(the so-called victims of the fraud), the assets are deposited at
the U.S. Treasury Department so the FTC can have bragging rights to
$28 million, so far, in �forced payments�.

One
particularly ugly enforcement action the FTC undertook was against
an elderly war hero who had developed a concoction of vitamins and
herbs that he took to cure his cancer. Thinking he could provide others
with useful information about this event, he put up a website, stated
how the concoction had helped him and shared this information with
others in case it might work for them, too. He offered to make up
the concoction at cost for others and clearly stated he was not recommending
anybody quit following doctor�s orders. The FTC, without prior warning,
without legal notice, without even a shred of evidence anybody had
been harmed, swooped down on the war hero and was in the process of
seizing all of his assets including his house and his life savings,
when a health freedom lawyer managed to convince the FTC to not take
the old fellow�s home.

Fed
up with being denied our constitutional right to obtain truthful and
not misleading information about how dietary supplements can benefit
our health, a rapidly-growing group of customers, manufacturers, doctors,
lawyers and others have banded together to form The Coalition to
Stop FDA and FTC Censorship. They have also drafted a bill called,
�The Health Freedom Protection Act� to correct this disgraceful
situation.

The
bill will be introduced in Congress on or about November 9, 2005.
The purpose of this first News With Views action alert on this issue
is to urge you to contact your U.S. House Member TODAY to persuade
him/her to become an ORIGINAL co-sponsor of the bill before it comes
out. After this bill has been introduced, if your House Member has
not signed on, please keep up the heat and make sure all your friends
and associates are encouraged to do the same.

Here
are the specific steps to take to protect free speech and your right
to access truthful information about supplements:

1.
Go to www.stopfdacensorship.org.
This website is a work in progress and it currently has key background
information and a link to how you can contact your U.S. House Member
with a click of your mouse. 2. After November 9th the Bill number will be assigned and
put on the above site and you can send more letters asking your representatives
to sign on to this bill and vote for this bill when it comes up.

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Elissa
and I wish to thank our readers for all the encouraging mail about
our work and feel privileged to be able to keep you informed about
cutting edge legislation and what you can to do protect your rights.
We will keep you informed on the progress of this bill.

Dr. Carolyn Dean
is a medical doctor, naturopathic doctor, herbalist, acupuncturist, nutritionist,
as well as a powerful health activist fighting for health freedom as president
of Friends of Freedom International. Dr.
Dean is the author of over a dozen health books, the latest of which is
"Death By Modern Medicine".

Elissa Meininger,
is Vice President of Friends of Freedom International and co-founder of
the Health Freedom Action Network, a grassroots citizens' political action
group. She
is also a health freedom political analyst and can be heard on the natural
health radio show SuperHealth, broadcast weekly on station WKY (SuperTalk
AM 930) in Oklahoma City.

The
purpose of this article is to outline the crisis and to urge you to take
action TODAY to support your right, under the First Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution, to have access to truthful information about the benefits
of taking dietary supplements.